BIKES

an inextricable part of a male student's life in a hostel, will simply have to be his bike. its as good as likening it to that novel, eragon. each dragon rider would be united with its soul mate- the dragon, or some hogwash like that. bah! its takes quite a bit for me to read these fantasy novels anyway; not to say that i dont fantasize, but i'd prefer if it were outta my own mind than some fool writing some 'magical' story.
anyway, let me show you glimpses of what a bike can do to you.
it can give you... bliss!
my memories of long rides on the bike comes from maybe my ride to moodbidri or manipal. there's an open stretch of road ahead of you. cool breeze splashing across your face. and you're in absolute control of your bike; one twist of your right hand over the accelerator and it can propel further on the road, the surroundings could get a lil more blurred, your face would experience cooler air and you'd feel like you can direct the bike wherever you want to. like it becomes part of you.
whew! i could go on and on, but there're a few incidents that i thought was good enough to speak about.
one night (obviously, we aren't 'sunshine boys', wake up early, pray, study? rofl!) babar, aswani, pagal (prashant agal) me, hare krishna, and anagh. decide to go to thaneer bhavi. this was the time i still hadn't got my dragon as yet.
we ride to the outskirts, ie, through MG road, and towards panambur, and as you know, the road to the left, before that oil refinery/port, is thanneer bhavi.
we take a mud road which leads to a straight tar road.. now, from here on, its ONE STRAIGHT ROAD.
to the left of us, there's an inward projection of the sea, to the right of us, is the huuge oil refinery. there are street lights on either side, so the path is reasonably well illuminated. this stretches on for about 1 and a half km.(thats how big the oil refinery/port is)
we ride on, there's no way we'd go off the road, becos the street lights are faintly reflected on to the water, and we can see a few boats gently floating in the water.
after about 2 km, once the oil refinery seems to end, there begins to be, vegetation on to the right, and water on the left. this is when the street lamps end.
so whats ahead, is pitch black darkness. the only way you can move ahead, is by the light of your bike.
hare has aswani pandey as pillion. i'm pillion to anagh. and babar's riding agal.
(lol!)
so what do we do now?
switch off the lights.
exactly! switch 'em off! and RIDE into the darkness. the experience i had 2 years back was one of the most exhilarating experiences i've ever had. you've no clue where you're headed! you cannot see ANYTHING.(for a similar experience, try closing your eyes and running on a tar road at night)
the only reassuring thing is, that you're riding on the road. the only emotion that could strengthen you, is trust. that the road in front of you is straight. and you're moving in the right direction.
a phenomenon that a group of bikers commonly identify with, is the 'keeping a tab' job. the bike ahead, stops when he races a little too fast, and looks back to see if the other guys are slow, or are catching up. its a safety tip that most people follow.
anagh was riding the bike, trusting the darkness, his 'anti-social' mane of hair flying in the wind, and i lapsed in and out of panic.
then all of a sudden, we hit something. i saw anagh fly off the bike towards the right, and i was thrown towards the left. the bike skidded, fell and revved a little way off the both of us.
surprisingly, help was hardly a minute away. we saw babar and aswani rush towards us, and ask us whether we were hurt.
babar, did the 'keeping a tab' job. with the lights of his pulsar off, and in the MIDDLE of the road!
i mean! how dumb is that!
luckily, i wasnt hurt, anagh got a few bruises. but nothing happened to the bikes.
i'd probably tell you the other bike experiences later.
and also, there are SO many experiences/stories/ incidents i can relate here, but some come under the purview of
1. um, should i write about it here?
2. let me change names and write em up!
3. go to hell! i wanna know what happened.
so you guys choose. and depending on what you want, i coud possibly relate.

PS: to finish off, i heard azeb's in delhi now. and there's this little incident. he, of course, doesnt know a word of hindi, so when a person came up to him and asked him:
"yeh room khali hai?" (pointing to the room, next to his)
azeb: "khali nahi, empty hai!"